The carrier strike equation: Do the UK’s plans add up?

 Harry Lye

HMS Queen Elizabeth and the ships that will make up her carrier strike group during Exercise Westlant 19. Image: Crown Copyright / MOD.

22 September 2020 (Last Updated September 22nd, 2020 17:08)

A recent National Audit Office report raises concerns about missing components in the Royal Navy’s plans for carrier strike. Harry Lye investigates the strategic decisions, partnerships and politics surrounding the programme to find out whether the UK’s carriers can achieve their full potential.

For the better part of the last decade, questions have persisted around the UK’s plans to deploy two full carrier strike groups. Now both ships are in the water and with carrier strike set to declare initial operating capability in December, concerns over the programme’s viability have again been raised. 

The Royal Navy always understood, one senior military source told us, that if the carriers were not populated properly with crew and aircraft they would never achieve their true purpose. The UK MOD recognised this, and so spurred the approach of the carriers being regarded as a ‘defence asset’ rather than just warships belonging to the Royal Navy.

The idea of the aircraft carriers belonging to the whole of the armed forces was again brought up at this year’s virtual edition of the Farnborough International Air Show, where First Sea Lord Admiral Tony Radakin and Chief of the Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Mike Wigston both spoke of the aircraft carriers as a shared asset.

Given this approach of considering the carriers a shared defence asset, the number of aircraft for the carriers then becomes a decision for the British military as a whole, not just for the Royal Air Force to take.

Commenting on the carriers, Defence Select Committee chair and MP Tobias Ellwood told us: “The Defence Committee has time and time again seen that there is a real problem with the Ministry of Defence’s ability to procure, and the carrier strike force is a prime example of this. It’s undoubtedly a concern that there just aren’t enough supply ships and we are relying on ageing helicopters, as well as concerns about F-35 fighter squadrons.”

Ellwood said these issues showed the MOD needed to take carrier strike ‘seriously’ to achieve its full potential.

“With all these issues, one has to question the value of the carrier,” he added. “As it stands, it seems to be little more than an expensive toy that looks nice but is not much use in the real world. We need to see the MOD taking this more seriously and stepping up to the plate with adequate funding to enable the carrier force to operate at its potential.”